Map Enthusiasts

There is no stupid. The 4 countries of the United Kingdom are akin to the states of the United States. No other country will ever recognize them, for one because they’re not even trying to be recognized as individual countries. Second because they literally define themselves as one country, not four. Third because they’re called countries but really they’re provinces or states, the UK just abuses the term country.

The UK is a constitutional monarchy and parliamentary democracy[o] with three distinct jurisdictions: England and Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have their own governments and parliaments which control various devolved matters. A developed country with an advanced economy, the UK ranks amongst the largest economies by nominal GDP

The Acts of Union 1707 declared that the Kingdom of England and the Kingdom of Scotland were "United into One Kingdom by the Name of Great Britain".[p][22] The term "United Kingdom" has occasionally been used for the former Kingdom of Great Britain, although its official name from 1707 to 1800 was simply "Great Britain".[23] The Acts of Union 1800 formed the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Following the partition of Ireland and the independence of the Irish Free State in 1922, which left Northern Ireland as the only part of the island of Ireland within the United Kingdom, the name was changed in 1927 to the "United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland".[24]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Kingdom